WRX vs EVO... thats cute... open front diffs.. weak 5 speeds...



Also, you post a thread about a clutch install where 1 person posted the price and even he posted a smilie that makes it look likes he got hooked up...

I've seen more than one shop on SoCal that will look at you like you are jocking if you say $500 for a clutch install...

My friend, who is a Porsche Tech... wont do it as side work for $500.00

 

I just sold my STi last week. Was it worth the money? HELL YES!!! A lot people are starting to find turbo kits to get higher hp #'s, but from what I have learned over the past 18 months is that the STi can only handle 375 awhp reliably w/out building the bottom the end. There are quite a few guys with more power than that but time will tell how long the stock bottom end will hold up. I was at 345 awhp on 91 and 410 on 100.
I only ran the 100 once to see what kind of #'s my set up would yield. The interior rattled a bit but with my mods, I couldn't take it in for warranty. There is a local dealer that will look past some mods, but if the ecu is reflashed, forget about it. Other than the rattles, it was pure enjoyment.

 

I wouldn't say that the motor is weak. Its got cast pistons.. so that kinda sucks... on the plus side, a full shortblock is only 1600 from the dealer.

Also, there are many people that have been running more than 340whp on a daily driver. There's a guy here in socal that runs it with 390whp.. he's got alchy injection to cope with our 91 octane. The puertoricans (YAY!) are running over 450whp on stock block STi's all the time too...

Personally... Im shooting for 350-370whp on my STi with MAYBE water injection... But I might not even do that either.

 

I'm considering buying a car to meet these requirements:

1. AS FUN as my S2000
2. More storage capacity for interstate travel.
3. Ability to carry more than one passenger. (Back seats)

The STi appears to be at the top of my list, but I'm going to test drive several other cars as well. Presently I'm not considering the Evo because I prefer the appearance of the STi, and I'm very concerned about the fiscal health of Mitsubishi Motors. Enough said about that.

The main concern is #1 above. I know that a car like the STi is going to be a TOTALLY DIFFERENT experience from the S2000... but... I'm really worried that I will regret moving away from the lightweight tossability, steering precision, braking, and simply the FUN of the S2000. It's so hard to define it really, and I'm afraid I won't fully appreciate it until it's gone.

I know the STi offers many things the S2000 does not, but I don't really care much about straight line performance or quarter mile numbers. I love braking, cornering, accelerating out of a corner, lateral grip, and all the other stuff that goes with that.

STi owners: Can the STi really be AS FUN (doesn't have to be more fun) than an S2000? I wish I could phrase the question more clearly, but it sort of defies rational analysis. I don't want to make a decision to buy a more "practical" car and then regret it later. Thanks for your help!

 

I rarely drive my s2k. But its still fun to drive. STi is my daily driver now.

 

when i trest drove the 2005 STI, after selling my 2000 s2000, I was disapointed. Sure it was fast. But it wasn't nearly as fun to drive. Now granted, I wasn't giving it my best, but I wasn't letting a 3k rpm guideline stop me either. This is stating the obvious, but it just felt so much bigger and bulkier than the s2000, it felt disconected from the road.

So i bought another s2000

4 weeks later, the sun was up, it was 70 degrees in March. Drove to the beach with the gf, took the looooong way home, topless, curvy, empty roads. Had a blast! On the way home, was in stop n go traffic. Behind me was a blue STI. And I remeber thinking, "Today would not have been half as fun if I was in that STI today."

Now if I needed 4 seats and needed to make the sacrifice, I'd be looking at the sti again

 

BTW, I should note that when the STi is stock... it is not nearly as much fun as when its slightly modded. I mean... going from only 0.5 bar at 3200rpms to 1.25 bar at 3200rpms is a HUGE difference in driving feel/excitement.


But in all honesty... replacing a s2k for a sti wouldn't be an easy task for me.

 

Thanks for your opinions. This is going to be a tough decision for me.

In addition to the STi, I will also testdrive the RX-8, G35C, TSX, and possibly an Audi.

 

I would say that pure fun factor the S2000 is hard to top. The STi is fun in a very different way. It is nice to be able to floor it going into a turn and feel the car squat down and just blast you through the turn like you are glued to the road. It is always a little nerve racking in the S2000 at 10/10ths. It will outhandle the S2000 though, you will feel the extra mass and weight. It is great on the highway, kinda nice to have passing power without downshifting.

 

FWIW This might be one of those "in my area" things. At the track days I've attended there is almost 10 times more evos. At the local autocross we usually have more sti's but the number of evos have been growing very rapidly. The local drag strip tends to get more evos.